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Old 03-19-2013, 04:16 PM
 
307 posts, read 560,395 times
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Didn't find thread for the northwest sector of WA...up where Bellingham, Ferndale, Blaine are located. Would like to hear from anyone who lives in one of these towns.

MOD NOTE: Thread moved to the General Washington forum, as that's where threads about Whatcom County belong. The Seattle forum is for King County topics ONLY!

Last edited by Count David; 03-20-2013 at 08:49 PM..
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Old 03-20-2013, 06:04 PM
 
1,950 posts, read 3,528,742 times
Reputation: 2770
My parents live in Bellingham. It is a gorgeous, very active and very liberal small town. It has a cool downtown and major WA university, expensive housing, and a high concentration of granola types and retirees. Bike paths, parks, dog parks, beach areas, terrific farmer's market, lots of cultural events, the waterfront, and a very adorable town named Fairhaven next door. Not a lot of tech employment, or professionals outside of the university or healthcare. Sudden Valley is a large neighborhood outside of Bellingham w/ a golf course and boating/swimming lake that attracts a lot of transplants. I have heard many in Seattle say that they would live in Bellingham if it had an economy.

Links:
http://www.cob.org/services/arts/index.aspx
http://www.bellingham.org/press/photo-gallery/
http://www.bellingham.org/activities/
http://bellingham.com/
http://www.downtownbellingham.com/
http://www.portofbellingham.com/index.aspx?NID=126
http://calendar.bellinghamherald.com...thnic+cultural
http://www.wwu.edu/
http://www.cascadiakids.com/daytrip-...ham-with-kids/
http://www.livebellingham.com/Things...0/default.aspx
http://www.bellinghamfarmers.org/
http://www.sunset.com/travel/top-10-...0418000072538/
http://mountbakertheatre.com/
http://www.whatcommuseum.org/
http://www.gratefuldogs.org/
http://www.doggoes.com/parks/WA/Bellingham
http://www.cob.org/documents/parks/p...rail_guide.pdf
http://www.bellinghambikemaps.com/
http://www.seattlesouthside.com/blog...ore-bellingham
http://fairhavenstation.blogspot.com...py-meccas.html
http://www.bellinghamhippie.com/
http://www.fairhaven.com/
http://www.livebellingham.com/Jobs/L...0/default.aspx
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/blogs/

Sudden Valley:
http://suddenvalley.com/

Last edited by west seattle gal; 03-20-2013 at 06:22 PM..
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Old 03-20-2013, 06:25 PM
 
22 posts, read 53,557 times
Reputation: 23
Question about the university there in Bellingham, is it seen as a "real" university? The reason I ask that about the university there, (I think it's called Western Washington University) is because I heard it doesn't offer anything past a master's degree. I would think that a major university would. I live in Lawrence, KS (home of KU) and it seems similar. It is a "college town." Without KU, there wouldn't be much of a town. Is Bellingham like that? Or is it a small town that happens to have a college, if that makes any sense.
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Old 03-20-2013, 06:34 PM
 
1,950 posts, read 3,528,742 times
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It is considered a real university here. Washington has a small offering of public colleges, and that is one of them. I agree with your observations, though. In NC where I used to live, a "major" university offers PhD's and is ranked nationally. Here in WA, high school kids compete to attend UW (Seattle), Washington State (Pullman), Western WA (Bellingham), and Central Washington (Ellensburg).

Western offers a lot of culture to Bellingham, though the town has other avenues for culture in addition to the university. Bellingham seems to be a small town that has a university, since the school is set apart from the rest of the town and it does not feel like a "college town". But would Bellingham have much of a populace without the youth from the school? I don't know. You can see people of all ages in the town, but maybe a lot of the cool hippy businesses wouldn't be around w/out the influence of the students and professors. It is a major employer after all, but its presence does not dominate the town.
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Old 03-21-2013, 12:27 PM
 
22 posts, read 53,557 times
Reputation: 23
Thanks, west seattle gal.
I will throw this link up to contribute because although NW washignton doesnt have its own section, there have been lots of posts about it.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/searc...archid=3277107
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Old 03-21-2013, 01:24 PM
 
Location: Virginia
1,014 posts, read 2,100,232 times
Reputation: 1052
110% agree with 5thgenokie's initial post of what Bham has to offer. It's a great little town with alot of local culture. If it wasn't for the 300 days of grey doom and gloom I would still live there.

Lived there for years. Bellingham is definitely a College town. About 1/3 of the population is gone when the kids are out of school. It's very noticeable when you live there.

There are alot of Canadians that come down on weekends to shop, buy gas and pack out the mall and local Costco. It's actually shorter to drive to Vancouver, BC than it is to Seattle. Lots of cool stuff to see and do in Vancouver.

There is a large gap of people in their late 20's and early to mid 30's because most move away after school to pursue a career. After moving to Oahu one of the the first things I noticed was people my own age.
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Old 03-25-2013, 07:15 PM
 
1,717 posts, read 4,651,709 times
Reputation: 979
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dthraco View Post
If it wasn't for the 300 days of grey doom and gloom I would still live there..
You don't exaggerate much do you? Shall we check the facts?

Quote:
Bellingham, WA, gets 36 inches of rain per year. The US average is 37. Snowfall is 12 inches. The average US city gets 25 inches of snow per year. The number of days with any measurable precipitation is 168.
On average, there are 157 sunny days per year in Bellingham, WA. The July high is around 74 degrees. The January low is 30. Our comfort index, which is based on humidity during the hot months, is a 77 out of 100, where higher is more comfortable. The US average on the comfort index is 44.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dthraco View Post
Lived there for years. Bellingham is definitely a College town. About 1/3 of the population is gone when the kids are out of school. It's very noticeable when you live there.

There is a large gap of people in their late 20's and early to mid 30's because most move away after school to pursue a career.
Actually it's a good thing there aren't that many jobs ion Bellingham. It would get very crowded from the number of students who want to stay.

Last edited by Yac; 04-09-2013 at 06:05 AM..
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Old 03-27-2013, 12:08 PM
 
Location: Virginia
1,014 posts, read 2,100,232 times
Reputation: 1052
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Loney View Post
You don't exaggerate much do you? Shall we check the facts?
You don't cherry pick much, do you? How about the facts from other sites:

"Bellingham was reported to have the lowest average sunshine amount of any city in the US."
Bellingham, Washington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Annual chance of Sunshine 37.87%." The chart works out to 56 Clear Days.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

"On the average there are 71 sunny days, 93 partly sunny days and 201 cloudy days."
Climate | Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism

From City-Data:




From weatherspark.com:


Partly cloudy in Bellingham is similar to mostly cloudy in other parts of the US because of the angle of the sun and the layers of clouds making it dim. Just my opinion based upon living there for several years, you are free to formulate your own. So yeah, 300 days of doom and gloom. Other than that, it's an amazingly beautiful place to live with a great local culture.

Last edited by Yac; 04-09-2013 at 06:17 AM..
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Old 03-27-2013, 07:05 PM
 
1,717 posts, read 4,651,709 times
Reputation: 979
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dthraco View Post
You don't cherry pick much, do you? How about the facts from other sites:

"Bellingham was reported to have the lowest average sunshine amount of any city in the US."
Bellingham, Washington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Annual chance of Sunshine 37.87%." The chart works out to 56 Clear Days.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

"On the average there are 71 sunny days, 93 partly sunny days and 201 cloudy days."
Climate | Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism

From City-Data:




From weatherspark.com:


Partly cloudy in Bellingham is similar to mostly cloudy in other parts of the US because of the angle of the sun and the layers of clouds making it dim. Just my opinion based upon living there for several years, you are free to formulate your own. So yeah, 300 days of doom and gloom. Other than that, it's an amazingly beautiful place to live with a great local culture.
You need to actually read the very stuff you're posting. At its worst, according to the data YOU posted, 365 x 37% is 138 days of sun. Do the math einstein. On 2nd thought, there's no sense. Clearly math isn't for you.

If you are going to suggest that a day that has any clouds is something other than sunny, then please run along. Even HI rarely is clousless.

Last edited by Yac; 04-09-2013 at 06:17 AM..
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Old 03-27-2013, 07:27 PM
 
Location: Virginia
1,014 posts, read 2,100,232 times
Reputation: 1052
There is no bad math in my previous post. Perhaps you just don't understand that my "300 days of doom and gloom" opinion does not differentiate between partially sunny and cloudy days. They both are dimly lit.

It's almost comical that you find it important to hash this out and add sarcasm. What are you defending?
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